[thelist] linux server redistribute disk space

Steve Lewis nepolon at worlddomination.net
Tue Aug 5 20:56:18 CDT 2003


Richard Bennett wrote:

>Is it possible to redistribute diskspace from /home to /var, without loosing
>data?
>  
>
Not to answer your question at all, but have you considered moving the 
web root (htdocs or whatever)  to the home filesystem?  You should be 
able to do this with a relavively simple change to your Apache configs, 
and this would keep everything together.  You might also look at a 'du' 
of the /var filesystem to find out why it has filled up.  You may need 
to address some other issues (mail queues, bloated logs) for your 
general server health.  It is generally considered a bad thing when your 
/var filesystem gets full.

>Alternatively, can I put my pdfs on /home, and create a link from /var so
>they are visible from the web?
>  
>
You could use a symbolic link*, but Apache can be configured to not 
follow symlinks.  Check your config or try it.  Beware that this
divides your content over multiple file systems, and be sure you are 
still getting useful synchronized backups of your complete website and 
make sure to note this filesystem mapping externally (in your webmaster 
log or whatever you have) for the future.  Forgetting that link is there 
could be problematic for future maintenance of your site.


* From the 'ln' man page with emphesis added by me:

     By default, *ln* makes /hard/ links.  A hard link to a file is indistinguish-
     able from the original directory entry; any changes to a file are effec-
     tively independent of the name used to reference the file.  /Hard links
     may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems/.

     /Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories./


--Steve



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